The National College
Fine Art Staff
Benjamin Gaulon BA, MA
Media Tutor
Benjamin Gaulon is a researcher, artist and has a broad experience of acting as art consultant, curator, public and conference speaker, graphic designer, art college lecturer. Benjamin Gaulon is also organiser / Curator for Data (Dublin Art and Technology Association) and co-founder and co-director of IMOCA (Irish Museum of Contemporary Art).
He received a BA in Graphic Design from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, France and his MA in Interactive Media and Environment from the Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Netherlands.
His work has been shown at events such as Interzone (03), Turbulence (04), No/Copy/Right (04), SonicActs (04), Cite Rap (04), PopUp2.0 (04), Axis Festival (05), Ososphere (05), Numéripop (05), EVA (06), Art Rock (06), €10 000 Show (06), SuperFlux (06), Hansaflux (07), Showcase (07), Sous la Plage (07), Come out and Play (07), Cluster (07), DEAF (07), LightWave 08 (08), Garden of digital lies (08), International design biennale (08), Plane/Site (09), ReFunct 09 (09), The LAB (09), ISEA (09).
Research Interests
Benjamin belongs to the young generation of artists in the field of technological and new media art, that, adhering to a DIY-ideology, loves to make physical pieces.
He builds software (in Processing and Max/Msp), he is very much part of the internet generation, the laptop is his home probably – being French and living in Ireland – but developing his work he isn’t content with being ‘virtual’.
His works mostly involves the design of tangible interfaces, custom hardware, and aims at performances where the audience plays an active part. His attitude towards technology is that we now have so many tools and electronic parts available – partly to be found in the rubbish bins – that one can built custom devices to one’s own taste. They might not work perfectly always (in the way commercial technology should), they might just be built for one task, but they do what the maker wants it to do – and that might be something that no other piece of software or hardware does. Recycling is a theme that informs a lot of Benjamin Gaulon’s projects. This is as an environmental issue, for instance when he points to all the e-waste that the West ships to Africa and China. But it is primarily by engaging us with old games and obsolete technology, by making new works from obsolete equipment, discarded electronic parts, and stuff found on flea markets or even amongst the rubbish, that he makes us aware of how much we just throw away, how much we discard and forget about when buying the new iPhone, the new iPod.
His research explores ways of establishing new strategies in hardware recycling and hacking art practices in an age of technological obsolescence. His works explore the culture of planned and perceived obsolescence in the material economy of Western developed economies.
Projects:
The Res - Recycling Entertainment System
The Res is using six Nintendo Entertainment System’s controllers. Those controllers [the chip they contain MC 14021 BCP] are connected to a main chip [Atmel Mega 16 programmed in Basic] which read and convert to midi, the signal from the controllers. The midi output from the Res is connected to a computer which run the Resware, a Max/Msp midi based software. Each controller is playing with a different sound bank. So the players can mix like Dj’s and play in group like a band:
[1] Bass [library of 67 sounds]
[2] Drum [library of 18 drum kits]
[3] Percussions [library of 169 sounds]
[4] Percussions [same library as [3]
[5] Voices, Music Loops, Scratch... [library of 193 sounds]
[6] Synthesizer [library of 227 sounds]
The PrintBall™
The PrintBall is like an Ink-Jet printer using a PaintBall Gun as printhead. The gun is mounted on a custum made pan & tilt unit which is connected to a Max/Msp based software through an Atmel chip [programmed in Basic]. The software allow the users to load and analyze images. The resolution of the image and the space between the point [definition the image] can be ajusted. Because the document is printed from a central point the number of steps by points send to the pan & tilt, which is moved by two stepper motors, one for each axe horizontal and vertical, determine the space between each point.
de Pong Game™
De Pong Game is a recycling of the famous game PONG [Atari 1975-1977]. This new version has been built with Flash [Action Script] by Arjan Westerdiep for Recyclism™. This project is exploring the concept of Augmented Reality by using and interacting with urban architectures [buildings] as background for the game. Thus the game is projected on a building and the limits of that building are becoming the limits of the game area. The ball projected on the building bounces along the limits of the walls. The software is also using the windows as an obstacles for the game. So the ball is limited to frame of the building. As you touch the ball with the slider, its speed increases and because the ball bounces on all the obstacles of the architecture it becomes more and more difficult to play.
2.4Ghz™ from surveillance to broadcast
The 2.4Ghz™ project uses a wireless video receiver to hack into wireless surveillance cameras. This device (which is now part of consumers popular products), can be use for wireless surveillance camera but it can also be used for parents to keep an eye on their pupils. Those systems are getting more and more popular as they are getting cheaper. But what most users of those devices don't realise is that they are broadcasting the signal. This project (in progress) has several layers. Initially I have been walking around different town in Europe to collect and record footage received with the device, see below for the collected movies. The second part of the project (also in progress) consist of placing the device in the street to reveal the presence of the cameras and to make obvious the fact that anyone can receive those signals.
E-Waste™ Workshop
To better understand our daily environment it is interesting and essential to explore the fields of software programming and hardware design. Our life is full of computers and electronic devices that we trash as soon as they are obsolete. This behaviour represent a problematic issue in term of environment and recycling. So this workshop have different objective : help the participant and the public to understand better his environment, demystify technology and specially electronic and show the possibilities and importance of e-waste recycling. With the E-WASTE™ workshop we [KarlKlomp, Lourens Rozema, Bnjmn™ Gaulon] try to bring together both aspects, the artistic interest that can be found in hardware hacking / recycling and also to give an echo to the issues brought by electronic junks. Actually most of the occidental electronic garbage [mobile phones, computers, etc… highly toxic] is "recycled" in China or India in really bad conditions.
